Coping with ectopic pregnancy

Hlouisebaby3

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Messages
381
Reaction score
1
Hi everyone,

I’ve had a little break from the forum but I think I’m ready to share my recent experience.

On the 30th sept I had some very light pink discharge/bleeding and after calling the hospital they told me to come to a&e to be on the safe side. My partner was in Spain at the time visiting his parents for their 25th wedding anniversary so I called one of my best friends (at 9am on a Sunday!!) who dropped everything and arrived in 15 mins to take me to hospital. I’m very lucky to have lovely, supportive friends. Anyway, we were seen extremely quickly in a&e and they referred me up to EPU (early pregnancy unit) I waiting for what felt like forever to be scanned and the longer I waited, the more scared I became and what felt like “being safe” soon turned to me feeling convinced something was wrong. However, my friend reassured me that she was sure things would be okay, especially seen as I had no pain.

We finally got called in and an external scan was done. I was told she couldn’t see the pregnancy but that wasn’t abnormal at only 6w1d so she said she needed to do an internal scan instead. She still couldn’t see anything but didn’t seem phased. She started saying “I can’t see anything outside the uterus to suggest anything is wro-“ then broke off and began staring at the screen. I knew that was it, I knew it was all over and began to cry. She said she was very sorry but could see what appeared to be a pregnancy in my right Fallopian tube but that they needed to do bloods to determine exactly what was going on. I began crying hysterically, I couldn’t believe this was happening and I then had to call my partner and tell him over the phone which felt so cruel for both of us. He said he would try and get an early flight home whilst I waited for bloods and saw the doctor.

Once bloods were taken, the doctor decided to hold off from operating because my hormone levels were so low that the pregnancy appeared to have already stopped growing. They admitted me to keep an eye on me overnight. They were particularly concerned about how dizzy I was so kept doing blood counts. When morning came, the head of gynaecology came round and said he had looked at the scan and the slightly dropping bloods and suggested it was best to have the surgery to remove my right tube and the pregnancy because he was concerned about internal bleeding. He did however, say it was my choice and could be monitored closely over 8 weeks instead. The risk I posed was the tube rupturing. I was very scared and with my partner literally on the runway at that point, we made a quick decision that the surgery sounded safer. They prepped me for surgery about 2 hours later and I just wished that Jamie had got back in time. He did however, arrive just as I woke up. The pain was horrendous and I was dosed up on morphine for hours because it was so unbearable. The surgeon then came round to speak to us and showed us pictures of the surgery! He said he wanted to highlight how bad this could of been and that it was the right decision because (as he showed us) the pregnancy had grown so huge that it had already ruptured my tube and I was bleeding heavily internally. He said “if you had left the hospital, you most likely wouldn’t be here!” I felt so lucky to be alive but I just wish that could of helped with the pain of losing our baby :(

It’s 15 days post surgery now and I’m nearly mobile by myself. Stairs are still a challenge but I’m determined to get better by our anniversary on the 27th weekend.

To sum up, the whole experience was the worst of my life but I really hope that just by sharing this I can really put emphasis on just how serious ectopic pregnancies can be and to make sure you have all the facts from your doctors. I didn’t realise it was life threatening to me until all of this. I am now awaiting af so we can start trying again because to me, that will help emotionally and my doctor said there’s no harm in trying straight away. I did actually read that you can fall pregnant before you even get a period but I only read this yesterday and we’ve already dtd a few times the last week. Oooops. I’m sure I won’t fall pregnant without my period first but if I do. Good luck dating that pregnancy!

Wishing everyone else happy and healthy pregnancies xxx
 
Helen, you are such a strong person and are doing so well to be getting physically better as well as being able to write and talk about what happened. I'm so sorry to hear your story but I'm so humbled by the fact that you are here again and planning on ttc again. That makes me happy. Sounds like you have very supportive family and friends around you, nothing less than you deserve. Lovely to know you are doing OK xx
 
Thank you Radley. I am very lucky to have them but I really missed having the support of you ladies on here who really understand the emotions. I’m glad I have this as an outlet and it’s a massive support and comfort to me on my journey. The healing is easier with lovely people around you (physically and cyber!) xx
 
Thank you Radley. I am very lucky to have them but I really missed having the support of you ladies on here who really understand the emotions. I’m glad I have this as an outlet and it’s a massive support and comfort to me on my journey. The healing is easier with lovely people around you (physically and cyber!) xx

:hug:
 
Oh gosh I’m sorry you went through all of this, and hoping you start to feel better soon. How awful :( xx
 
I'm so sorry for what has happened to you. It's great to hear you're feeling stronger again.
 
Thanks both of you <3 wondering if anyone else managed to get pregnant fairly soon after suffering EP with tube loss? Xx
 
Last edited:
Oh no I am so sorry :( What a horribly traumatic experience. My loss was pretty straightforward and uncomplicated and it was still one of the most devastating experiences of my life. I didn&#8217;t have an ectopic but I did get pregnant immediately following my loss, before my next period. It&#8217;s no big deal, you just get a dating scan (my scan was at 10 weeks). Sending huge hugs and lots of luck for your next pregnancy.
 
Last edited:
Thanks kholl, sorry to hear of your loss also. Was it a mc then? I almost want it to happen straight away but part of me is worried I won&#8217;t be fully healed from the op... mixed emotions!! Xx
 
YES, I had an early m/c (between 5 and 6 weeks, not 100% sure on dates). It&#8217;s hard to know the best thing to do. Sending you love.
 
A few friends of mine were in similar situation. One lady did additional tests, and it occurred the genetics is the issue. She got pregnant via IVF PGS NGS a few months later.
 
Awww Helen, I didn't realise it got that bad, glad you are on the mend and back on the ttc wagon, sending you lots and lots of :dust: x
 
A few friends of mine were in similar situation. One lady did additional tests, and it occurred the genetics is the issue. She got pregnant via IVF PGS NGS a few months later.

I'm pretty sure she wont need to go down the route of IVF. She was only TTC for a a few cycles.
 
I'm so sorry for your experience, how traumatic for you. I haven't experienced an ep but just wanted to reassure you that i only have 1 fallopian tube and conceived naturally this time after only 8 cycles, so it can happen.
 
I&#8217;m so sorry this happened to you.

I have also had an ectopic pregnancy. It had already ruptured by the time mine was discovered and I had 1.5l of blood in my abdomen. I never really had much pain other than the shoulder and gas issues did they not give you a laparoscopy?

The surgeon (and several other medics) told me to wait 3 months before ttc as well. Which I ignored, and fell pregnant 5 weeks later, though it was hugely stressful as I had lot of pains and worry in the early weeks due to scarring and the fact it hadn&#8217;t all settled down yet.

I hope you are recovering well emotionally as it&#8217;s a terrible thing to happen to a woman. Xx
 
Thanks both of you <3 wondering if anyone else managed to get pregnant fairly soon after suffering EP with tube loss? Xx


I just came across this thread and it is almost exactly the same thing I went through except my pregnancy got to 10 weeks before my tube ruptured at home.

A sucess story for you. My husband has low morphology and count and I need clomid to ovulate. I fell pregnant 3 months later with my son who is a very healthy 4 year old now. I fell pregnant when my son was 11 months old (wasnt trying) sadly ended in mc.

And I am currently pregnant with twins on our second month trying.

I also have 1 tube - but annovulation and pooe sperm on hubbys side.

So I hope this is a little ray of hope for you xx
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

No members online now.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
473,573
Messages
4,654,637
Members
110,019
Latest member
laurenl27
Back
Top